1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flocked yarn which has a good touch and a high abrasion resistance and which is suitable for use in home interia and various industrial fields and a method for manufacturing the flocked yarn.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For producing a flocked yarn in which flock fibers with a short cut length are flocked onto the surface of a core yarn, various proposals are known. For example, Japanese Utility Model publication Nos. SHO 36-22141, SHO 41-16437 and SHO 47-32904 disclose improved core yarns for a flocked yarn, respectively. Japanese Utility Model publication No. SHO 43-5155 discloses an improved adhesive for use for combining a core yarn and flock fibers. Japanese Utility Model publication No. SHO 52-131073 discloses improved materials for a flocked yarn. JP-B-SHO No. 47-19579, JP-A-SHO No. 51-84955 and JP-A-SHO No. 61-15757 disclose respective apparatuses for manufacturing flocked yarns.
In spite of many proposals such as those above, however, practical use of flocked yarns has not been developed to any great extent. The reason for this is that most of the conventional proposals are mere conceptual ideas and, as yet, a flocked yarn which really satisfies practical requirements for use in various fields has not been obtained. Accordingly, further detailed research has been required to advance the practical use of flocked yarns.
The difficulty of making a flocked yarn which can sufficiently advance its practical use is basically due to the fact that a core yarn is fine and its form is columnar. The difficulties which this brings are considered below.
Flocking which utilizes static electricity is performed such that flock fibers with an electric charge fly along lines of electric force formed in an electrostatic field and parts of the flown flock fibers are forcibly plunged into a layer of an adhesive applied onto the periphery of a core yarn. The flocking is continued until the conveyed flock fibers cannot plunge into the layer of the adhesive because the flock fibers lose their movement by losing their charge by coming into contact with flock fibers already flocked. This state is usually called "fully flocked state". The amount of lines of electric force (electric flux) formed on the surface of a core yarn to be flocked is desirably as uniform as possible over the entire surface of the core yarn in order to achieve the above state (that is, fully flocked state) as early as possible. Even if the amount of lines of electric force formed on the surface of the core yarn to be flocked is slightly nonuniform, it is desirable to be able to fully flock the flock fibers on the core yarn only by extending the flocking time to some extent.
Generally, the electric flux density per unit square of the surface of a substrate material to be flocked can be uniformalized by providing an electrode having a surface shape conforming to that of the substrate material on which the flock fibers are to be anchored, or in a case where the substrate material has a columnar shape, such as a core yarn, by rotating the columnar substrate material (a core yarn). However, since a cylindrical electrode is required and/or a columnar substrate material must be rotated in these methods, these methods have a limitation in the simultaneous treatment of a plurality of substrate materials. Therefore, these methods lack practicality in the production of flocked yarns.
Moreover, when the flock fibers conveyed along lines of electric force are plunged into the layer of the adhesive on the core yarn as described above, the flock fibers often cannot be plunged sufficiently deeply into the layer of the adhesive because the flock fibers already flocked obstruct the flocking of newly introduced flock fibers, particularly in the case of a core yarn having a columnar shape. As a result, losing flock fibers is liable to occur.
Therefore, in the conventional flocking methods for flocked yarns, nonuniformity of flocking is liable to occur, flocking density is not sufficient and the depth of anchor of flock fibers into a layer of an adhesive on a core yarn tends not to be enough. As a result, not only is the quality of a conventional flocked yarn poor, but also its properties, such as abrasion resistance, etc. and its productivity are not good. These defects in the conventional flocking methods and the conventional flocked yarns are the reasons why such flocked yarns cannot serve a practical use.